Atrial natriuretic peptide effects on cGMP and cAMP contents in microdissected glomeruli and segments of the rat and rabbit nephrons.

A microradioimmunoassay has been developed in order to measure the changes in cGMP cell content induced in vitro by atrial natriuretic peptides (ANP) in either glomeruli or defined portions of tubules microdissected from collagenase treated rat and rabbit kidneys. When tested at 0.1 microM or 1 microM, all ANP analogues used produced in rat glomeruli a 20-25 fold increase in cGMP accumulation compared to basal values. Threshold responses were obtained with about 1 nM ANP and apparent Ka values ranged between 5 and 50 nM. Atriopeptin III led to similar results in glomeruli isolated from rabbit. Under the same experimental conditions, no cGMP could be detected in any ANP-treated nephron segment from the rat kidney (namely, from the proximal convoluted tubule up to the outer medullary collecting tubule) nor in cortical collecting tubules isolated from the rabbit kidney. Moreover, ANP did not alter the forskolin-induced increase in cAMP content in glomeruli or collecting tubules, nor the AVP-induced increase in cAMP content in collecting tubules. Our data confirm the marked effect of ANP on cGMP generation by isolated glomeruli from rat and rabbit; however, they are not compatible with a direct action of ANP stimulating cGMP generation in tubules or inhibiting vasopressin-induced cAMP generation in collecting tubules.